9BabyNames Baby names with meanings & US popularity data

Arlo vs Liam

How Arlo and Liam compare across 146 years of US Social Security Administration baby-name records — popularity history, peak years, current rank, and which name overtook which.

Open Name Tournament

Arlo

Male · Spanish

Meaning: The Barberry

Liam

Male · Gaelic

Meaning: Helmeted

US Popularity History — Side-by-Side

Annual US births named Arlo (boys) vs Liam (boys), from US Social Security Administration national records.

Source: US Social Security Administration. Names appearing fewer than 5 times per year are suppressed by SSA.

Quick Stats

Metric Arlo Liam
Peak year (most US births) 2024 — 2,481 boys 2024 — 22,164 boys
Peak rank #146 #1
Most recent rank (2025) #148 (2,443 births) #1 (20,818 births)
Total US births since 1880 19,743 343,615
Last 10 years (2016–2025) 17,798 202,429

Peak comparison takeaway

At its all-time peak, Liam reached 22,164 US births in 2024 — 19,683 more than Arlo's peak count.

Strongest States — Last 10 Years

States where each name ranked highest, from SSA's state-level dataset. Lower average rank = name appears closer to the top of that state's boys-name list.

Arlo — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Vermont #61 64
2 Wyoming #73 29
3 Minnesota #91 675
4 Oregon #101 397
5 Montana #104 112

Liam — top 5 states

#StateAvg rankBirths
1 Nevada #1 1,758
2 New Jersey #1 6,079
3 Florida #1 14,195
4 Oklahoma #1 1,983
5 New York #1 12,930

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Data & methodology

Source: US Social Security Administration national baby names dataset 1880–2025 (CC0 public domain). Names with fewer than 5 occurrences in a given year are suppressed by SSA. State-level coverage runs 1910–2025. Crossover detection compares annual birth counts (not ranks) for each year both names appear. Methodology: see full notes. More comparisons →